THE NEW YEAR WIND 



OUR fields and woods' undergrowths and the wild life in 

 them, even the greater features of our British landscape itself, 

 are vitally influenced by the west and south-west wind which 

 blows during one hundred and fifty-two days of each year. 

 Indeed the whole of our climate is due to this prevalence. We 

 talk of the Gulf Stream as warming England out of the 

 winter which should be the due of her northern latitude. But 

 there is also a Gulf Stream on the other side of the Atlantic 

 which has no such beneficent effect. The truth is that in 

 the warming system of equable England the Gulf Stream 

 is the fire and the west wind serves for the pipes that carry 

 the warmth to all the pleasant rooms. It would be of small 

 service that the Gulf Stream should warm the air that lies 

 upon it if a contrary wind carried the warmth out to sea. 



In this respect the south-west wind does service to all 

 England alike ; but in its more obvious appearances it is a 

 very different wind on the two sides of England. It makes 

 the one broad regional contrast that we can discover in this 

 various island. This wind has a particular preference for 

 January. At this season over a great region to the south of 

 Iceland the air suffers depression, and towards this expanding 

 area other air makes in the spiral manner that is peculiar 

 to it. 



The wind blows south-west on the average for one hundred 



